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Show Choruses From Towns of Size of Murray or Less Win Highest Prizes at the Great National Eisteddfod at Carmarthen BT JOHK MOBOAX. From various English and Welsh pa pen It can be gleaned that the recent -national eisteddfod held In Carmarthen wai an all round success, no matter from what standpoint the festival was re- The contest commenced at 3:1 and finished fin-ished ahortlv after . and kept tha vast audience enthralled. Hwanserdfst. the first to appear, and one of the finest, set a high standard that was hard to beat, but the Ebeneaer ' choir from tha same town excelled It. Then the sixth to appear waa the Bar 1 gold Telfy. These. Judging by their ra- ceptlon. were favorites with the audience. ', They opened splendid I v on "Peace, Be Still." the terror of the disciples In the storm being vividly portrayed. But It 1 was In Hegar'a "vValpurga" that this ; magnificently toned choir achieved a triumph, tri-umph, the climaxes produced being wonderful won-derful and thrilling, and on concluding. ' the audience, rose en meeae and gava this , superb body of voices an ovation. The latter were right In their judgment, and Bargold Telfy. a amall village of l&Oo. near Newcastle Kmlyn, but on the Car- iiEttan iuc- si mo i a-iry, awemeq i ne honors. Hwanser Ebeneser being secomi. Thus all the premier awards went to small. Insignificant country towns In the rural counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan. Car-digan. Farm Servant g Odd Beat. Welsh democracy was In tha ascendant as the choir ode was awarded to William Roberts Uwllym Aerlogi of Uanjollen N. r Wales, a humble farm servant and shepherd, a person who probably never earned more than So a week. Yet men possenslng university degrees competw for the coveted trophy, the highest honor the national festival can award In tha literary tine. The eisteddfod was attended by lOoo exiled Welshmen, hailing from tha 1'nlted State.. Canada, Pataoma. In tha Argentine Argen-tine Republic, where? there la a thriving Welsh colony; South Africa and Australia, Austra-lia, while there waa also a strong delegation dele-gation from Brtttany. The Bretons. In their Dlrtureaaue na-1 tlonal drees, were one of the chief attrac. ttons In Carmarthen during the eisteddfod eistedd-fod week, one of their representatives delivering de-livering a fluent address in Welch during one ot the Oordsedd ceremonies. IeOnftellow'a Daughter Honored. Another Interesting feature was the introduction in-troduction of an American lady. Miss Leongfellow. daughter of H. W. Longfel. low, the noted American poet, to Dyfed. the archdrutd of Wales, at tha flna. gorsedd. The lady met with a rousing welcome from the audience. Hha after-wards after-wards declared herself being thrilled with her experience of her first eisteddfod, eistedd-fod, as being raptured entirely with the singing of the Cardlg-an ladle, and amaxed at the tremendous volume of harmony har-mony that typical Welsh audiences can prod ue. Words of pre lee must also be bestowed on the Carmarthen eisteddfod choir, noncompete non-compete lv which was raised to perform In the evening concerts. It waa a superb chorus of S0 voices, supported by an orchestra of fifty nerformers. Their rendering ren-dering of fhe "Elijah" waa a veritable triumph, both for toe chorus and Ita talented tal-ented conductor. R. C. Jenkins of Uan-elly. ' viewed. Hitherto It waa conceded thai I the great choirs of Wales halted from I and were recruited In the Industrial centers, cen-ters, either In the slate quarries of th north or ln the coal mining centers ol the south. But this year's festival hai demonstrated the fact that choirs, big and small, whether mixed, mala voices or ladies' la-dies' voices, that come from small country coun-try town and villages in rural Wales, can more than bold their own with the best of them. In the chief choral choirs of from IW to 200 mixed voices, four entered and three sang. Tha pavilion, capable of holding 14.000, was packed to overflowing, overflow-ing, hundreds being unable to get Inside. The tests were very severe. a "Be Not Afraid," Bach); (b "O, Death. Thou Art the Tranquil Night. (Cornelius); c) "How Sweet the Moonlight Sleeps. (Evelyn (Eve-lyn Evans). All three pieces were sung without accompaniment by the Bryna-man, Bryna-man, Iwlata and Southport choirs. The train carrying the latter from Ijn. cash Ire waa delayed, and in waiting for them, Penar, the conductor of the day. led the vast audience In the singing of Dr. Parry's Incomparable hymn tune, "Aberysiroyth." the pavilion being flod-ed flod-ed with an overwhelming ton of glorious harmonv that simply amased both Kng-llsh Kng-llsh and foreign visitors. Tha singing was snore like the effort of a huge, highly trained choir than that of an ordinary audience. AH the adjudicators were im- i reused by the magnificent tone of the owlals choir, but in Interpolation they did not equal Brynaman and Southport. The rendering of the former waa an artistic ar-tistic triumph and they were awarded the prise. Town Smaller Than Murray. Thus the premier choir award for big choirs went to Brynaman, a amall country coun-try town in the western part of Carmar-thenahlre Carmar-thenahlre of not more than 1000 Inhabitants, Inhabi-tants, or barely more than half the population pop-ulation of Murray. In the minor chord contest sixty to eighty mixed voices, seven choirs sang, (a "How lively Is Thy dwelling Place." Brahm: bl "Tranquil Night. (E. T. Davits), the award finally going to Newcastle Emlyn. a small west Carmarthen Car-marthen town. Briton Ferry was second. sec-ond. Eighteen Juvenile choirs competed snd the adjudicators were simply entranced bv the aingtng of the children. Rheidol. Abervatrovih. and oher west Wales choirs carrying oft principal honors Builth Wells, a small, health resort among the Beecomihlre hills In mld-Walea, mld-Walea, carried off the palm In the me--rical contest, the performance being termed a superb one. Ten choirs competed In t ladles' eon-test. eon-test. Including some of the finest ladles' choruses In the principality, und the victory vic-tory for one of the best performances heard for many years was awarded to the ladles of Cardigan, another west Wales country town of barely fifteen hundred hun-dred Inhabitants. The leader of this superb su-perb party waa Mrs. Bowen Davie, whose husband runs a small drv goods store In this out of the wsv old world village. Tredegar Monmouthshire waa placed second. sec-ond. . Male Voice Con teat. On Fridav tha great mal voir contest open to vhotrs of from sisty to eighty votcea waa held. This contest now outrivals out-rivals the chief choral on Its popularity. Ten choirs' entered. All turned up. each one bringing hundreds of ardent admirers with it. The tests were severe: a Peace. Be StTI." C. I. Jenkins, tbt "Wslparga." Hegar. The pavilion, notwithstanding not-withstanding the beat, waa literally narked, with some thousands ssore crowding crowd-ing around the various exits and entrances en-trances la order to hear their choir giants. |
